Jeffrey Reznick is currently chief of the History of Medicine Division of the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. He joined the NLM following his tenure as director of the Institute for the Study of Occupation and Health of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. Previously, he served as senior curator of the National Museum of Health and Medicine of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and as Executive Director and Senior Research Fellow of the Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund.
As a social and cultural historian of medicine and war, Jeffrey is author of two books, both published by Manchester University Press in its Cultural History of Modern War series: John Galsworthy and Disabled Soldiers of the Great War: With an Illustrated Selection of His Writings, (2009), and Healing the nation: Soldiers and the culture of caregiving in Britain during the First World War (2005). He is also author of numerous essays, book reviews, articles for the popular press, and entries in major reference works.
Jeffrey's ongoing research involves studies of the ‘materiality’ of Great War medical and voluntary-aid programs, of individual and collective memory of the period 1914-1918 and of the significance of this memory to historical research and to wider dialogue about the immediate and future care of soldiers disabled in war.
Jeffrey has lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of historical and contemporary health subjects. During the past decade he has offered dozens of presentations to academic and non-academic audiences alike at healthcare professional meetings and institutions including Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center of Fort Sam Houston, Harvard University, The Johns Hopkins University’s Institute of the History of Medicine, London’s Imperial War Museum, University of Barcelona, University of London’s Institute of Historical Research, Smith College, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and Villanova University. Complementing these public presentations are Jeffrey's numerous interviews with national and regional press, including The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, Time Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, and WUSA Channel 9 News of Washington, DC.
In the trajectory of his career in academe and the national non-profit sector, Jeffrey has served as an adviser to a number organizations including the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Howard University Public Health Council, and The Polus Center for Social and Economic Development’s Disability Leadership Institute in Léon Nicaragua, an initiative funded by the Patrick Leahy War Victims Fund and The Pan-American Health Organization. Jeffrey is also a former member of the board of the Friends of the National Library of Medicine, having served that nonprofit organization for nearly seven years before joining the staff of the NLM.
Jeffrey is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS) and holds active membership in several professional historical associations, including the American Historical Association, American Association for the History of Medicine, and International Society for First World War Studies.
A native of Rochester, New York, Jeffrey lives in Rockville, Maryland, with his wife and two daughters. He received his MA and PhD from Emory University and his B.A. from the University of Rochester, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa.